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At noon the curtain was raised on the two days of testing at Jerez. All the top teams from the premier class are on the track, as well as some from Supersport, like team Vamag, with the MV Agusta machines entrusted to the De Rosa-Badovini duo.
With the circuit clock showing 1 PM, the fastest of the group is Johnny Rea. Not even the rule change, which amputates 14,100 rpm off his bike, was able to change the script. Indeed, because the three-time world champion is still ahead of the rest, this time with a time of 1’40”482. The performance is a far cry from that 1’37”986 he did in late November, but in this case we must take into consideration the track temperature, still too cold.
This morning, the Kawasaki rider took to the track astride his ZX10RR MY, a further evolution in view of the Championship start, immediately demonstrating great confidence. He was the only one who managed to drop below the 1’40” mark in confirmation of the competitiveness demonstrated by the three-time world champion.
And so, it is striking to see Chaz Davies’ Ducati (+0.836), the first of the followers, suffering a gap of almost nine tenths behind the leader and just eight thousandths ahead of Marco Melandri’s “Red”. It was only the morning, so one might think that a time attack was not the highest priority for the riders from Borgo Panigale, or at least that’s what we’re hoping. Besides the two standard-bearers, also in the garage is Michael Rinaldi (+2.106), who we know will compete in a few races in the upcoming season as a wild card. At the moment, the Italian is lying eleventh ahead of Lorenzo Savadori’s Aprilia.
Getting back to the top spots, behind the two Ducatis is the Yamaha ridden by Alex Lowes (+1.510), just over a tenth faster than Loris Baz on his BMW. This is an important signal for the Frenchman on his second outing with Althea after his MotoGP adventure with Avintia. There is another R1 in the top spots and it is the one ridden by Niccolò Canepa, who got the best of Michael van der Mark’s factory ride by just 69 thousandths.
In the Honda camp, on the other hand, the apprenticeship continues for Leon Camier (+1.930), despite the gap of almost two seconds behind the leader. The British rider’s Fireblade is flaunting the Magneti Marelli ECU for the first time, expected to take a turn for the better in terms of performance. Right now, the team Ten Kate rider is ninth behind Eugene Laverty.
Not making it into the top ten, on the other hand, is Jordi Torres (+2.896) who we will see astride the MV Agusta in 2018. He said that he is dreaming of the podium, but at the moment the lead is a bit far off to the tune of about three seconds.
Scrolling through the rankings, the fifteenth best time goes to Leandro Mercado, hard at work astride his team Orelac Racing Kawasaki, ahead of American Jake Gagne. Yonny Hernandez has still not gone out on track among the rumours that would have him on the team Tech3 team in Sepang. He is probably waiting for the afternoon to have his go at racing the clock. The same is true of Tom Sykes. Testing will end at 6 PM today.
THE TIMES AT 1 PM
